This was the post I would have written yesterday if the planets had aligned well enough for the internet to work properly where I stayed this weekend.
I have never gone shopping on Black Friday. I guess I just don't possess the competitive gene required to spend hours waiting in the cold to fight over some item because it's on sale. I seriously don't believe I'd do it if the items were being given away free!
I can remember seeing all the ads for after Thanksgiving sales as a kid. This has traditionally been the time the best sales were held for decades, starting with Macy's in 1924. The name "Black Friday" was first used in 1961 by Philadelphia police and it was called that because of the traffic jams and increased pedestrian traffic associated with the start of the holiday shopping season. It took a while to spread but by the 80's it was being used across the country. Many merchants however were adverse to the negative connotation of the name and tried unsuccessfully to change it. Eventually the idea that this was when merchants started making more money thereby being "in the black" financially and that version seems to have stuck.
Somewhere along the line things got crazy. I can't say if the deals just got better, if the media just gave it more attention or if it was because the stores themselves manipulated the sales hours to create more urgency. Maybe people just became more primitive, who knows? What I do know is that around the mid-2000's Black Friday shopping became a sometimes violent contact sport. How does the thought of saving some money cause people to absolutely lose their minds?
A few examples:
Tallahassee, FL - 2 people shot over a parking space
San Antonio, TX - a guy punches someone to get into the front of the line so another guy with a permit to carry a concealed weapon pulls his gun
Holland Township, MI - 2 shoplifters pulled a gun on the clerk who spotted them
Kentwood, MI - gang fight at a mall leads to pepper spray being used
Covington, WA - apparently intoxicated 71 yr old runs down 2 people in a parking lot
Every state - robberies of people in parking lots and countless fights that haven't been widely reported by the media
And the TOTAL IDIOT of the year award goes to a man in Springfield, MA who left his girlfriend's 2 yr old child in the car while he shopped for a TV. The child was spotted and police broke into the car and had him sent to the hospital as a precaution. Meanwhile the guy was tracked down AT HOME! He said he lost the boy while shopping, panicked and called someone else for a ride. Notice he called someone for a ride; he did not call the police, or someone to help him find the child, not even the child's mother who was at work. Just what the hell did he plan on telling her when she got home?!!!
At least this year, at least as far as I can tell, no one has died. No employees or shoppers were trampled to death like the guy in Long Island, NY in 2008. No pregnant women have miscarried such as the one who was in the same crowd. No fathers shot each other to death, in front of their kids, like happened in Palm Desert, CA on that very same day.
Now, I am not Catholic. I am not really of any organized religion, but to me Black Friday seems to embody most of the 7 deadly sins: greed, envy, gluttony, and wrath for sure, probably a little lust and pride are also in the mix. If you think about it sloth fits in there too. Because if you do your research and take the time to really look, deals can be found all year long without putting your safety at risk.
I hope your shopping was problem free and you got all the deals you wanted.
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